Poor Facilities at The County Ground.

[4D]

I saw a bloke asleep on the bank of that underpass,  with a can of strong cider next to him....and a rat (not a pet one!). Used to use that underpass when going to the CG.

[ronnie21]

Changed for you....like the present MP for Swindon North

Totally agree with you Reg, another parasite!!  Bit like "The Grinner" Councillor Dale Heenan who is responsible for signing off all these roadworks at the same time resulting in gridlock!!  Comes out of the woodwork for a photo opportunity but always blame somebody else when it goes tits up - as it invariably does!!

[Sir Pissalot]

I saw a bloke asleep on the bank of that underpass,  with a can of strong cider next to him....and a rat (not a pet one!). Used to use that underpass when going to the CG.

I can just about remember it as it was in the black and white pics below.  No doubt Reg can, too!   

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/swindonlocal/tags/whalebridge/

[Reg Smeeton]

I can just about remember it as it was in the black and white pics below.  No doubt Reg can, too!   

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/swindonlocal/tags/whalebridge/

The 3rd pic down with the garage, is a familiar view, but can't really remember the first 2. Vividly remember the canal in what became Fleming Way, before it was made a road. Used to walk along it, for a way on the way to school or to go into town.

[4D]

I can just about remember it as it was in the black and white pics below.  No doubt Reg can, too!   

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/swindonlocal/tags/whalebridge/

Ha, the bank the bloke/rat were on was the one to the left of the couple.

[RobertT]

The problem with any development has always been obtaining the necessary funding.  That scuppered the plans Fitton had, which included the developer that completed PNE's new stands.  The general premise was that it would provide a long term return that would more than pay for it, but you still need someone giving the cash to build the thing.  The economic issues hit the banks just as we were ready to press on, and with our credit rating no doubt pretty next to zero anyway, we were way to risky to lend to.  Black bailed at £10m invested, so clearly would not have had the appetite to do it himself.

[Mother Brown]

Probably spending more that on the fecking roadworks at Bruce St Bridges - better get it right this time.

Useless shaggers

Those flower pots on Clive Parade really enhance the area.
Bravo Sbc . . money well spent.

[jonny72]

Black bailed at £10m invested, so clearly would not have had the appetite to do it himself.

We'd be in a far better position if their investment had been put in to the ground and facilities, rather than having Wray and PDC piss it all away chasing promotion to The Championship.

[Batch]

We'd be in a far better position if their investment had been put in to the ground and facilities, rather than having Wray and PDC piss it all away chasing promotion to The Championship.

Would we? 10M is a new stand maybe, not a new stadium. And in fairness they did start to look at it.

Getting to the championship is £5m extra revenue, and more fans.

Tough call.

edit: oh, that was RobertT's point, I should read threads forward not backwards!

[Ardiles]

The problem with any development has always been obtaining the necessary funding.  That scuppered the plans Fitton had, which included the developer that completed PNE's new stands.  The general premise was that it would provide a long term return that would more than pay for it, but you still need someone giving the cash to build the thing.  The economic issues hit the banks just as we were ready to press on, and with our credit rating no doubt pretty next to zero anyway, we were way to risky to lend to.  Black bailed at £10m invested, so clearly would not have had the appetite to do it himself.

Point taken, but it still doesn't really explain what is so special about STFC that we are just about the only club not to have managed to get something off the ground since the mid-1990s.  Even clubs like Oxford, who managed a badly planned/botched relocation, have managed something.  We are almost on our own as a Football League club where parents are now taking their kids to a ground that looks almost identical to the one they visited themselves as kids.  Just tattier.

Someone else pointed out earlier in the thread that this could be part of a wider Swindon malaise.  You could apply the same rule to the town and, in particular, the town centre itself (ie that the centre of Swindon is basically the same now as it was 25 years ago, just more dilapidated).

When I was a kid growing up in Swindon in the 1980s, it was called out as a place on the move.  The 'fastest growing town in Europe' was going places.  There was always something new happening; a new area being built.  The outlook was always positive.

By comparison, everything now seems to take ages.  There is always a reason not to do things and get on with them.  Why did that change?  Just imagine the place people could now be living in it Swindon had retained its 'can do' attitude.

[dphunt88]

Would we? 10M is a new stand maybe, not a new stadium.

Would a new Town End really cost £10 million? Perhaps if it came with Large Hotel/new club shop/ticket office/etc I could understand but that just seems extortion.

Is anyone on here in construction? What did Peterborough's new home end cost for example - that's along the lines of what we'd need/want behind the goal.

[Ardiles]

The figure I remember is that the Intel (now Don Rogers) Stand cost  £1.8m to build in 1994.  Adjust that for RPI and you get to £3.0m in today's money.  Add on a bit extra because anything to do with construction seems generally more expensive, and you might get to £5.0m maximum.  £10.0m seems way too high, especially when considering that the Town End is a shorter stand.

[Batch]

Would a new Town End really cost £10 million?

I was thinking of an Arkells replacement. Its true Stratton Bank and the Town End are worse, but I'm not sure how you increase revenue by rebuilding those. But there must be scope for better facilities in the main stand - even if its just better corporate/boxes. Whether there is the appetite to use such facilities is another matter.

[4D]

How much did Fulhams temp stand cost, where we stood in the cup game? That's been there a while.

[Ardiles]

I was thinking of an Arkells replacement. Its true Stratton Bank and the Town End are worse, but I'm not sure how you increase revenue by rebuilding those. But there must be scope for better facilities in the main stand - even if its just better corporate/boxes. Whether there is the appetite to use such facilities is another matter.

You'll never know until you build it.  But I'd imagine that Madejski, for example, probably had similar reservations when Reading were slumming it in Elm Park 20 years ago.  From their point of view, lucky he took the punt.

There's a part of me that feels quite strongly that we're never going to see a step change in our fortunes/status until the owners actually believe that things can be different and take a punt.  In 2024, we could be an established Championship club playing regularly to 15,000 crowds in a modern, redeveloped County Ground.  I do believe it.  I wish there weren't so many out there doubting the possibility.